Overview
During a facelift, the facial skin is lifted as a flap and moved. Part of that flap can lose its blood supply and die, which is called a skin slough. The authors studied whether cigarette smoking played a role in skin slough after facelift. The abstract is two sentences long and does not give patient numbers or methods.
Findings
- A significant number of skin sloughs seen after facelift surgery were due to patients' cigarette smoking.
- Smokers make up an appreciable part of every surgeon's practice.
- The authors state the findings have considerable implications for patient selection and counseling before surgery.
- The abstract reports no patient counts, rates or study design.
What it means for a patient
- Smoking raises the chance that part of the facelift skin will not survive and will slough.
- The authors state that smoking should factor into who is chosen for surgery and what advice is given before it.
- If you smoke, tell your surgeon. Ask how long before and after surgery you must stop.
- The abstract gives no numbers, so the size of the added risk cannot be stated from it.
Why this paper matters
It linked cigarette smoking to skin loss after facelift and pointed to patient selection and counseling before surgery as the response. The authors note that smokers are an appreciable part of every surgeon's practice. Cited 236 times (NIH iCite, 2026-09-25).
Terms
- Skin flap: skin lifted from the tissue below while staying attached at one edge for blood supply.
- Skin slough: death and shedding of part of a skin flap.
- Flap survival: whether the lifted skin keeps enough blood supply to live.
- Face lift (rhytidectomy): surgery to lift and tighten the skin and deeper tissue of the face.
- Patient selection: deciding who is a suitable candidate for surgery.
- Preoperative counseling: advice given to a patient before surgery.